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311polo Ballot for 2018 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 24, 2018, 11:12 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Based on play on the field. Trying to avoid pre-season hype and polling.  Ranking are a mix of both how they looked playing and who you have played and beat with an emphasis on the latter. 

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide They might as well be an NFL team.... sigh.
2 Stanford Cardinal This may be a little high as to where they probably should be, but I argue their resume having beaten a solid SDSU, USC, and at Oregon is pretty solid.  
3 LSU Tigers I went back and forth with Stanford and LSU. I decided on Stanford due to having played three solid teams. Though LSU's Auburn win is fantastic.
4 Clemson Tigers If I were going off of hype, they'd be 2nd.  aTm win was solid, but rest are meh.  The ACC looks terrible this year aside from Clemson.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Every win 40+ points, including against SoCar and at Mizzou.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes They just keep dominating. But only good team they've played is TCU.
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Michigan win is looking better.  Dominated at Wake.
8 West Virginia Mountaineers Wins against an SEC team (but it's Tennessee) and KSU.  I probably could justifiably knock them down a bit for schedule, but no body below really seems to warrant being higher.
9 Oklahoma Sooners Had OU done what OU usually does against the Army's of the world, they'd probably be 5 or 6.  But after that performance they deserve a drop. And honestly they probably deserve a much larger drop, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
10 Auburn Tigers One good win, one good loss. Two meh wins. 10th.
11 Washington Huskies Defense looks really solid.  This could be a little high right now. But not much. I think this is fair.  They have a tough Pac-12 North road ahead. 
12 Penn State Nittany Lions Well, I'm still punishing them for that App St. debacle in game one. Also, their schedule is pretty meh aside from the domination in their last 3 games.
13 Kentucky Wildcats I hate the SEC so bad that I wanted to find an excuse to keep them closer to 20th, but I couldn't.  Sadly, the SEC is clearly the best conference this season and they are already 2-0 in it.
14 Michigan Wolverines They are looking really good right now after three dominating wins against what appear to be terrible teams.  They could move up quick once they win against some better competition.
15 California Golden Bears BYU win on the road is looking better and better.  Basically from here to 19th is a crap shoot.  Thus far, Cal has the best resume of this lot.
16 Colorado Buffaloes My hated rivals! (well, maybe in 20 years).  Not sure what to think. The CSU win looked better last week, but not this week.  Nebraska win is now looking worse.  They should probably have dropped more, but I'd rather not punish a team for winning against Bye.
17 Duke Blue Devils They've played pretty much no one. That NW win doesn't look as good. But they are winning pretty comfortably.  The ACC could really use them going undefeated except against Clemson.
18 Oregon Ducks A little low. Probably. But that collapse was epic and so I kept them here.  They could justifiably be at 15.  
19 Texas Tech Red Raiders Great wins at Ok St and against Houston.  Earns them back in the top-25. 
20 BYU Cougars They could be kicking themselves at the end of the year over that Cal loss.  They looked lackluster against McNeese for a half.  Big matchup this weekend @Washington.
21 North Texas Mean Green 4-0 and dominated every game - even though the competition is weak.
22 USF Bulls Two P-5 wins and 4-0. 
23 Wisconsin Badgers Back on track with a tough win at Iowa
24 Syracuse Orange The only other hope for the ACC, I don't expect it to last, but welcome to the Top-25. Enjoy it.
25 UCF Knights They've played no one. Maybe I should have put Buffalo or Cinci here instead....  But I do think they are better than those teams.  This could be a pre-season hype rank.

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